August 3, 2009

Minutes of 9/11 Commission Meetings

This post lists minutes of 9/11 Commission meetings. The documents have been posted at the 9/11 Document Archive at Scribd. I am reading through them gradually and highlighting interesting information. This post will be updated continuously.

(-) Minutes of a 9/11 Commission meeting on June 5, 2003 and a withdrawal notice for notes about the meeting. The meeting received briefings from the FBI and CIA about the plot. It also discussed a document request submitted to the White House and why the commission had cut-off dates of January 1, 1998 and September 20, 2001 for its investigation.

The minutes also mention documents related to detainees, say that the commission had previously decided to ban government minders from interviews, and offer press guidelines to commissioners.

(-) The minutes of a 9/11 Commission meeting on July 31, 2003. The minutes cover an apparent agreement between the commission and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales on access to administration documents and say that Continuity of Government documents were only available to the commission’s chair and vice-chair, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton.

Executive Director Philip Zelikow also tells the commission that it intends to write an unclassified final report, rather than go through the declassification process.

The minutes also mention an agreement on keeping information about Zacarias Moussaoui secret, the commission’s first interim report, and the schedule for hearings in 2004.

There was also a secret briefing by Zelikow on the failure of intelligence analysis on the topic of aircraft as weapons. Compared to drafts of the minutes, the description of the discussion in the final version of the document is curtailed.

The file also contains the agenda for a 9/11 Commission meeting on August 8, 2003. The items on the agenda are public activities and “intelligence warning and policy action.”

(-) Four drafts of the same minutes with more detail about the discussion of aircraft as weapons. According to Zelikow, the US should have been aware of the threat of aircraft as weapons by the summer of 2001 at the latest.

(-) 18-pages of minutes of a 9/11 Commission meeting on November 6-7, 2003. The minutes cover leaks about internal commission discussions over access to PDBs, the terms of such access, a subpoena for the Defense Department over NORAD documents that have been withheld from the commission, a redacted briefing by the head of MI5, a meeting with White House staff about access to the PDBs, the drafting of the final report, the moving of staff member Barabra Grewe to Special Projects, and a subpoena for New York City.

Also a 2-page December 2003 memo to the commissioners about the next meeting. The agenda says that commissioners may attend interviews, but should not say much/anything until all the staff’s questions have been asked. It also mentions a possible request for an extension of the commission’s deadline.

(-) Draft minutes of a meeting of the 9/11 Commission on November 6-7, 2003 with minor comments by commission lawyer Daniel Marcus and Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste.

(-) Minutes of a 9/11 Commission meeting on January 5, 2004. The meeting discussed the commission’s lack of access to CIA-held detainees, team leader Dieter Snell argued for direct access, and various people weighed in. In the end the commission decided to send a letter to CIA DIrector George Tenet again requesting access.

The other main topic was a global agreement with the White House about access to documents and officials. The agreement was drafted by commissioner Fred Fielding and was accepted with a couple of provisos.

Finally, there was a discussion of an extension of the commission’s deadline and in a “closed executive session” a discusion of recusals at the request of newly appointed commissioner Bob Kerrey – presumably dealing with Executive Director Philip Zelikow’s ties to National Security Advisor Rice.

(-) A draft version of the same minutes with hand-written comments by Jamie Gorelick. Also a cover e-mail by commission staffer Stephanie Kaplan and a memo from the commission’s chairman Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton about the agenda for two commission meetings in late January 2004. The memo mentions preparations for hearings, a possible meeting with FBI Director Robert Meuller, access to PDBs and possible meetings with Presidents Bush and Clinton, and Vice Presidents Cheney and Gore.

(-) Two sets of draft minutes of a meeting of the 9/11 Commission on Febraury 24, 2004. The meeting discussed a leak to the New York Times that information about alleged hijacker pilot Marwan Alshehhi had been passed to the CIA in 1999 and access to presidential daily briefs.

There were also briefings by two of the commission’s teams, discussions about declassification of the final report, leaks, and meetings with National Security Adviser Rice, Vice President Cheney and former President Clinton. Cheney had agreed to a 90-minute meeting with the commission.

The masterlist for all documents the History Commons has obtained and is analysing can be found here.